Ditching machine



April 22 1924. I 1,491,168

E. PRENDERGAST ITCHING MACHINE V Filed Dec. 5. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet l April 22 1924.

E- PRENDERGAST DITCHING MACHINE 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Deo. 5,

Patented Apr. 22, 1924.'

UNITE STATES PATENTv EDWARD ERENDERGAST, F ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

DITCHING MACHINE.

Application led December 3, 1921. Serial No. 519,598.

To all whom t may concern- Be it known that I EDWARD PRENDER- GAsT, a citizen of the nited States, and a resident of the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ditching Machines,

of which lthe following'i is a specification4 justable up and down, so that a ditch having a bottom which will readily drain 0H water can be made irregardless of the topography of the land.

A still further object is to construct a ditching machine which has an attachment so that a berm can be formed on either side of the ditch. This berm can be made` Various widths according to the kind of material worked in.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a ditching machine embodying my invention with t-he furrow opener raised.

Fig. 2 a. top plan view of the same. v

Fig. 3 a longitudinal vertical section.

Fig. 4 a perspective view of the slide which carries the berm` forming blades.

Fig. 5 a cross section of a ditch.

Fig. 6 a longitudinal section of the same.

In the construction of my device I emlof,7 a pair of U-frames 7. These U-frames have their front ends 8 pivotally mounted in a frame 9. In this frame are mounted shafts 10 and 11 which carrywheels 13 and 14 overwhich iieXible bands 15 are placed. These flexible bands are for the purpose of preventing the front from sinking into soft or marshy ground. TheV frames 8 are pivoted in the frame 9 by means of a shaft or rod 16. The rear ends 17 of the frames 7 are pivotally secured to a frame 18. The frame 18has extensions 19 which extend upon either side of rollers 20. These rollers have the iexible band 21 placed over them.

It will be noted from Fig. 2 that the flexible band 21 is mounted centrally between the frames 7 and is designed to ride in the bottom of the ditch when formed. The ends e5 17 are pivoted to the kframe 18 by means of A further object is to construct a ditching machine in which the plow is readily ada shaft 22. Mounted between the frames 7 are a pair of. L-frames 23. Their vforward ends 24 being pivotally mounted in the frame 9 and are likewise secured to the shaft 16. Secured between the frames 23 and near their free end is a casting 25 to which is secured a vplow share or furrow opener 26. This furrow opener is preferably V-shaped,

`so as to throw the ground both ways while cutting. Formed integral with the casting 25 are ears 27 to which are pivotally secured *castingsl 28. kThese castings 28 are in turn secured to cutters 29. Thesecutters cutting the side slope of the yditch and are adjustably mounted b-y means of'a turn buckle 30.y

It will be noted that the blades 29 may be adjusted, by means of the turn buckle 30, to and from each other, and thus the angle of inclination of the slide slopes may be varied. Secured to the frames 7 and 23 is a toggle 31. vThis toggle is operated by means of a screw 32 and hand wheel 33. By the manipulation of the hand wheel and screw,

the nut 34 which is attached to the toggle may be drawn forward or moved backward, and thus raise andlower the plow 26 together with the side slope blades 29. Secured to each of the frames 7 is a slide frame 35 in which the slide 36 is mounted. This slide has secured to either side and near its bottomy 8, a casing 37 which has perforated ears 38. Pivotally connected to these ears 38 are blades 39 which form the berm and carry the material removed from the ditch and side walls to the desired distance beyond the edgeof the ditch. This width is varied by means of a turn buckle 40 which causes the rear ends of the blades 39 to be brought closer to or further from each other. Secured to the frames 7 is a bar 41. This bar having downwardly extending ears 42, and between the ears is pivotally mounted a lever 43. This lever being slotted adjacent its ends as indicated by the numeral 44 and 45. The slot 44 receiving the stud 46 which is secured to theframes'23. The slotted end 45 being pivotally secured within the opening 47 formed in the slide 36 by means ofthe stud or shaft 48, In this way the blades 39 arev moved in the opposite direction to the plow 26. In other words,

when the plow 26 is dropped downward to cut a 'deeper ditch, the blades 39 are simultaneously raised, so that the blades will always ride on the surface 4of the ground.

los

This is essential, since it is necessary to continuously feed the plow up and down when passing over rough ground, as illustrated in Fig. 6, in order to maintain a proper bottom for the ditch, and were the blades 39 not adjustable with and in the opposite direction to the plow 26, the blades39would at times form an auxiliary ditch on either side of the main ditch. The frame 9 is provided at its forward end with perforated ears 49 for the purpose of attachinga draw bar thereto and pulling the machine by a tractor or horse power, or when making a very deep cut a great power is necessary to pull. The device, block and tackle can be attached thereto and the power thus'multiplied so thatthe device can be .pulled along. This latter method is especially-desirable when the machine is used in swampy lands, as it is very hard to: get a tractor which is powerful enough to pull the device without sinking the same into the mud so deep that it isusel'ess. In this kind of soil I use a tractor'which is equipped with-a drum or nigger head, and run` the tractor ahead a certain distance and attach* the Vblock and tackle, and then draw theditcher up to the tractor; then run the tractor ahead again and repeat the operation.-

It will be noted from Fig. 3 that I provide the slides 35 with a gage; This is for the purpose of determining the depth' at which the plow is sunk into ftheground. The plow 36 and scraper 39 work in opposite directions, vso that when the scraper 39 is raised a certain distancel above the ground, the plow will sink a corresponding distance below. yIn other words, whe-n the slide 36 is raised to the numeral 1 on the gage, which indicates that the point of the plow is one footbelow the lower edge of the scraper 39. In other words', theplow is cutting to a depth of one foot'below ythe surface. This'is essential,- especially where draining is done as the points along the proposed ditch are marked bythe surveyor as to the depth that the dit'cli is to beat that particular point, so'as to maintain the proper water shed. In this way the operator of the ditching machine can regulate the depth of the plowpand maintain-the proper inclination or pitch of the ditch by noting the marks along the proposed route of the ditch. l

The operation of my device is as follows- In cutting a ditch, the VVmachine is started moving forward, when this has -been done the hand-wheel 33 is' turned so as to spread the toggle, this forces theffurrowopeners-26 downward into'rthe ground? :The furrow opener will first commenceto cut a -V shaped ditch but due" to .the fact `that the bars 23 are pivotallyv mounted,4r the furrow opener will Swingin a circle and:gradually.V bring the lower edge horizontal. i. This lowering is also assisted by the fact that the rear band 21 travels on the bottom of the furrow. This traveling on the bottomy causes the bars 7 to swing downward and carry with them the toggle 3l. As previously pointed out, the lowering of the furrow opener raises the scraping blades 39 proportionally so that the berm on either side of the ditch will be formed on the surface 0f the ground and the blades 39 will do practically no cutting of thesurface except Vwhere slight bumps or projections of the earth may occur. In this case the blades will level this off.V f

At no time is my device used in such a manner that a iV shaped ditch will be cut,

'it' being essential that the bottom ofthe ditch be left flat so that travel therein.

Having fully what I claim is:

l. A ditching machine comprising a U frame, flexible bands carried by said frame for supporting the same, a pivoted frame the band 21 can ldescribed my invention,

carried by said frame, means for raising and lowering the pivoted frame, a plow secured to said pivoted frame and operable therewith, cutting blades having their front ends flexibly secured to said plow at its rear end,

means for adjusting the rear end of said Y' cutting blades to and from-each other, and

depth of cutting of said plow, cutting blades pivotally secured to said plow adjacent its rear end, said cutting blades adjustable to and from each other, scraper blades carried by the U frames and located to the reariof said cutting blades, said scraper blades adjustable simultaneous with said plow and in the opposite direction thereto.

3. Ay ditching machine comprising a pair of inverted U` Iframes, a frame pivotally carried by each leg of said U frames, rollers carried by said pivoted frames, flexible bands passing aroundk said rollers for sup? porting the U frames, an L frame pivotally carried lby one of the pivotedframes, a plow carried by said L frame, mea-ns Yfor raising and lowering said L frame, ...cutting .blades having* one endl pivotally .secured `toy said plow'adjacent its .rear end, means foradjustingthe` free ends of lsaid cuttingV blades to and: from yeach other, lsc-rapin lblades carredby the' U freie@ and 160th@ 'in the rear which a toggle lever and screw are employed l0 for raising and lowering the plow.

6. The ditching machine of claim 3 in which a toggle lever and screw are employed for raising and lowering the plow.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

EDWARD PRENDERGAST. 

